Boater hats are to be re-introduced to the prominent independent school for
the first time in 47 years in commemoration of the centenary of the First
World War and those pupils who died

Boater hats are to be re-introduced to prominent independent school for the first time in commemoration of the centenary of the First World War and those pupils who died.

As a moving homage to the 147 old boys from Brighton College who died during the Great War, the independent school will see its 30 prefects wearing the blue and red ribboned boaters from Thursday to coincide with St George's Day, headmaster Richard Cairns said.

To honour those who nearly 50 years ago left the school gates for the last time wearing identical boaters, the school has also commissioned a war memorial of a sixth former leaving the premises.

Brighton College last wore boaters in 1969 when they had been a feature of the College uniform. However, they went out of fashion in the 1970s because they were regarded as creating social divisions between those who attended the school and those who didn’t.

Pupils wearing school boaters at Brighton College, Sussex in 1871

But as of next Thursday, the boaters will be mandatory wear for the prefects and voluntary for the remaining 360 sixth formers.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Mr Cairns said: “Most of the boys who left were volunteers and many of them died on the western front during the Great War but they never had a proper visible memorial.

“I wanted to have something in the centenary that young men and women can see and be grateful that they didn’t have to go through the same experience as their [predecessors].

“I wanted it to be a physical link between them. The boaters as a symbol are reconnecting the pupils with a former generation of boys who lost their lives so they could be free.”

The school has also commissioned a bronze statue by sculptor Philip Jackson of a schoolboy in a boater, based on a photo from 1914, symbolising all the young men who took up arms and risked everything for their country. It will be unveiled in June 2016 to mark the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.

The school’s Remembering the 147 website features information on every alumni who fought in the war, with current pupils recorded readings of the names of the fallen.